Of Ghosts And Goths
by Snowbound Suicide
Summary: It's college, and Danny has given total priority to ghost hunting, to the point of ignoring Sam altogether. The heartbroken Goth has started to move on with a new man. Just as she's starting to get the hang of life without Danny, he reappears wanting her back. Who will she pick - the man who broke her heart, or the man with a broken heart of his own waiting to be healed?


He doesn't know who Danny is. All he knows about the other guy is that he did a number on Sam's heart.

She doesn't believe in love, or proclaims not to, yet her hand is locked around David's wrist half the time. Not that she drags him anywhere; she just doesn't believe in handholding, and when they head to the Goth club across campus he lets her take his wrist because that's just what she does. These days he's used to it. He lets her have her oddities if allows for his, for his constant wearing of gloves and his own damage, the panic that flashes in his uncanny bright brown eyes when he's touched. Sam rescues him, shoos people off in a way he's not assertive enough to. They have a spot they sit in and they have standard drinks they order, and for a time, this is who they are, quiet moments, soft conversations, music and books and musings.

It's early November before things start to change, before she starts talking about home, about her brilliant friend Tucker who's going to MIT on a full scholarship and her overly peppy parents who sound trapped in their own little world and her grandmother who was amazing and Sam can't get over losing her so suddenly. He edges the door open to his own past, a life spent in strict Catholic schools, not allowed to have friends, not allowed TV or dinner if he didn't get straight A's, and leaves out the reason he wears gloves. She leaves out Danny for a long time, just proclaims love is stupid and a human social construct until on her birthday, November 19, only a card from her parents arrives.

He can tell something is wrong because she normally comes over to his dorm room only to watch movies on Thursdays, and it's a Friday night. She flops down on his bed, traces the spider web print patterns on it with a careful feeling, and opens her mouth to spill out the story of her best friend since she was twelve, her perfect boy next door, the non-Goth who accepted her Gothiness, the boy who had big dreams of being an astronaut and kooky parents who sounded like he had been as much a part of Sam's life as her own family. She recounts to David how Danny faded out of her life, how he just stopped coming by more and more and eventually the calls faded and now it's been three months since she's heard from him.

She hates love, he hates physical contact, but maybe they can pretend that's not what they're doing when he sits down on the bed and pulls her close. He offers to watch any movie she wants, just because he knows it'll take her mind off of things, and Sam instead opts to put in a Clan of Xymox CD, flop back on his bed and just listen to it while he sits there awkwardly toying with her hair, wishing he were brave enough to take off his gloves and touch her for real. They are both damaged, not entirely normal or maybe even sane, yet together it doesn't seem to matter that much. They sit there like that until the CD ends. Sam's fallen asleep, so he sleeps at his desk, and when he wakes up she's left.

They don't discuss it, but they're in the same major, so three of their four classes are together. They continue to get early morning coffee and late night drinks together when things get stressful. They eat vegan lunches together, have study sessions that are basically Gothy meetings, go out to see the new vampire movie one night and talk through the night about it. She borrows his clothes more than once. He thinks maybe there's hope for them, maybe she can make him not so afraid of the people in the world, and maybe if he tries he can make her not think love is a joke. At least, the friendship kind of love is real, he knows that, or thinks he knows it.

It happens just after a thick snowfall in early December, just after Thanksgiving Break. She takes his hand for real, and he dares to let her, so he supposes he has it coming when she hugs him outside the University Library, both hands in his, resting her head against his chin. If he tips his head downward he can rest his head on hers. It's literally been years since someone touched David like this, with gentle intentions and a pure heart, and it's a Goth love, one of darkness and a snow coated foggy morning instead of a sunny, cheerful day.

"Sam?" an unfamiliar voice asks, and the girl flinches, hard. David wraps his arms around her protectively, his brown eyes alight with worry.

"Hi Danny," she says weakly, peeking over at him, and this, this is the point where things get complicated.


End file.
